Enforcing Traffic Laws to Implement Pedestrian Safety Rules in the City of Kisumu, Kenya

Legislations on pedestrian safety have been established especially in Kenya. These include the Traffic Act Cap 403 of 2013 and the subsequent amendment of 2014. However, enforcement of such legislations have been found to be inadequate partly explaining the increasing road traffic accidents. The most vulnerable groups to the accidents have turned out to be the pedestrians. Consequently, the study sought to investigate how enforcement of traffic safety laws influenced implementation of pedestrian safety rules in the City of Kisumu. The study adopted a descriptive survey design and sampled 384 road users from a population of 409, 928 residents of Kisumu City using Krejcie and Morgan table. The study sample was distributed to include 200 pedestrians, 100 drivers and 84 key informants including engineers, traffic law enforcement officers, childrens park managers and parents. The researcher used convenience sampling to select the roads, and the pedestrians, random sampling to select the drivers and purposive sampling to select the key informants. A researcher designed questionnaire was administered to pedestrians and drivers to collect quantitative data while qualitative data was collected using Key informant interview schedules and observation checklist. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics particularly Pearson Moment correlation using SPSS V.22 while qualitative data was analysed thematically. The study found a statistically significant positive relationship (r = 0.281, p = 0.000) between enforcement of traffic laws and implementation of pedestrian safety rules. The study concluded that traffic laws enforcement should be increased to enhance implementation of safety rules.